Despite loss, Indiana makes case to stay No. 1

Even with Indiana losing week, you would have to think the Hoosiers made a strong case for staying at No. 1 with their 81-68 win at No. 10 Ohio State this afternoon.

During the CBS broadcast, analyst Clark Kellogg said he would still keep IU stop his ballot, even though Indiana lost 74-72 to Illinois earlier in the week.

If Indiana does stay No. 1, it will also be because of the losses taken by multiple ranked teams this week. No. 2 Florida lost at Arkansas on Tuesday. No. 3 Michigan lost at Wisconsin in overtime on Saturday. No. 5 Kansas had a very tough week, losing at TCU and then Oklahoma.

No. 4 Duke plays Boston College at 6 p.m. today. But can you justify moving the Blue Devils to No. 1 when they lost by 27 points earlier this year to a Miami team that whipped North Carolina by 26 on Saturday.

In fact, if you were not voting Indiana No. 1, I would think you might have to vote Miami No. 1. The Hurricanes are 10-0 in the ACC and 19-3 overall. And yet they were No. 8 in last week’s poll.

As for Indiana, the Hoosiers got 26 points from Victor Oladipo today, plus the swingman produced one of the best dunks of the season with a driving, high-flying jam. Cody Zeller scored 24 and Christian Watford scored for Tom Crean’s team, which improved to 21-3 overall and 9-2 in the Big 10.